An excellent source for how to think about buying health insurance if you’re not employer- or government-covered is this one, from Charles Gaba, a Web developer who has meticulously kept track of the Affordable Care Act for several years now. The effects of the events in Washington on different people with different income levels and different “metal level” plans vary greatly state by state, and it’s important for you to know this.
If you have a silver plan now, depending on the state, you might well do a lot better with gold or bronze. You might do better buying a non-exchange insurance plan.
Whatever plan you have, you should read carefully before you buy, and shop carefully under different scenarios. For example, in past years, many people viewed silver as the only wise option, but that’s no longer true.
Watch his site for updates and explanations in plain language about the state of play.
Jeanne Pinder is the founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts. She worked at The New York Times for almost 25 years as a reporter, editor and human resources executive, then volunteered for a buyout and founded ClearHealthCosts.
With Pinder at the helm, ClearHealthCosts shared honors for the top network public service journalism project in a partnership with CBS News, as well as winning numerous other journalism prizes.
She was previously a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism. ClearHealthCosts has won grants from the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York; the International Women’s Media Foundation; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with KQED public radio in San Francisco and KPCC in Los Angeles; the Lenfest Foundation in Philadelphia for a partnership with The Philadelphia Inquirer; and the New York State Health Foundation for a partnership with WNYC public radio/Gothamist in New York; and other honors.
She is one of Crain’s Notable Women in Tech. Niemanlab wrote of ClearHealthCosts that “The Internet hates secrets.”
Her TED talk about fixing health costs has surpassed 2 million views.